Daughter to Trevith, a member of the Welsh landed class and advisor to the king. Spiritual student of her maternal uncle Saint Beuno Gasulsych. Physically beautiful, she made a private vow of chastity, becoming a bride of Christ. Murdered when she rejected the amorous advances of a chieftain named Caradog of Hawarden; she had escaped from him, and was seeking shelter in a church when he caught and killed her. Legend says that where her head fell, a well sprang up which became a place of pilgrimage, and whose waters were reported to heal leprosy, skin diseases, and other ailments. Saint Beuno raised her back to life; he cursed Caradog who was promptly swallowed by the earth. Winifred became a nun, and later abbess at Cwytherin, Deubighshire, Wales.

Born

* c.600 at Holywell, Wales

Died

* beheaded in the early 7th century
* c.655 of natural causes at Denbighshire, Wales
* relics translated to Shrewsbury, England in 1138
* shrine destroyed and relics scattered by order of King Henry VIII in 1540
* remaining relics taken to Rome, but returned to England in 1852, and now housed at Holywell and Shrewsbury

* abbess with a ring around her neck standing near the fountain
* beheaded woman carrying her head and a martyr‘s palm
* beheaded woman with a block, axe, and her head at her feet
* carrying a sword and palm with a spring of water at her feet
* Celtic maiden holding a sword with a fountain at her feet, and red ring around her neck where her head has been severed and restored
* having her head restored by Saint Beuno